Use of Nonobese Diabetic Mice to Understand Human Type 1 Diabetes

In 1922, Leonard Thompson received the first injections of insulin prepared from the pancreas of canine test subjects. From pancreatectomized dogs to the more recent development of animal models that spontaneously develop autoimmune syndromes, animal models have played a meaningful role in furthering diabetes research. Of these animals the non-obese diabetic (NOD) mouse is the most widely used for research in Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) as the NOD shares a number of genetic and immunologic traits with the human form of the disease. In this chapter, we review both similarities and differences in NOD and human T1D and discuss the potential role of NOD mice in future pre-clinical studies aiming to provide a better understanding of the genetic and immune defects that lead to T1D.